5:2 Diet Fast Day One & Some Crochet

Friday 12th April 2013 was my first fast day of the 5:2 Fast Diet.   Out of 7 days you fast (in reality eat only 500 calories for women and 600 for men) for 2 days and eat normally for the other 5.  You do not have to have the 2 days in succession and you can change when they occur as long as you have two fast days out of 7.

I thought this sounded something I could do.  People do it in different ways, saving all their 500 calories for a big dinner, or just eating breakfast and lunch.  It is too early to see which will suit me best but I do know that if I don't eat regularly I feel unwell so I decided to have something for breakfast, lunch and dinner and maybe snacks in between.  As it happens my snack was an apple in the afternoon.  I had also planned having 5 cups of Yorkshire tea with milk but I only had 3 as I drank white tea with no milk for the rest of the time, and plenty of water.  So it meant I could add those calories from the tea I didn't drink, into my dinner.

My first fast day occurred on the last day of the Easter holidays and I was by myself.  When I return to work next week it will be totally different and might be a lot easier and might be a lot harder.

I do know that I have the support of lots of lovely people and I hope that I shall be forced to be more creative with my food.  I have never ever calorie counted before so it is all a bit new to me but it is certainly eye-opening.  Some people pig out on their non-fast day (called a feast day) but I am sure you are just supposed to eat normally, but some people find they eat healthily these days as well.

For my breakfast I had a yoghurt.  For lunch I had Sweetcorn Soup. This is something I make anyway but I usually add noodles and whatever I have in the kitchen.  And this recipe did use what I already had.  You can get low calorie noodles and I will try and buy some next week.

It looks disgusting, doesn't it?  But it was lovely.

 Sweetcorn Soup                      147 Calories

 1/3 tin of sweetcorn 
4 mushrooms sliced
one egg
stock (made up to 600 ml but used 100 ml of this for couscous in the evening)

I made up the stock and put aside about 100ml of it to use later.  I put the rest in a saucepan and added the mushrooms and let it cook for about 6 minutes.  I added the sweetcorn and let it cook for only a minute or so.  The I added the egg and as soon as it went in I used a fork and beat it in the soup so it trailed in the soup (I am a lazy cook).

Then I ate it.  It was lovely.  Of course you can add whatever else you have and just adjust the calories accordingly. 

I put the rest of the sweetcorn away for another meal (maybe a sweetcorn omelette on the next day).    This is enough for one person as I am just cooking for myself but you could always make more and share.  I don't know if it will freeze well (it will not with the egg) but maybe you could let me know.


For my dinner I planned on having couscous with peas.  But as the afternoon went on and I got hungrier and hungrier I worried that it would be very boring.  So I went to the shops and bought some vegetable and a salad bag. 


I had trouble with working out how many calories would be in couscous. Many sites gave it to you cooked but that is no good unless you know how much dry couscous makes up when cooked.  So please feel free to correct me if I have it wrong.

CousCous Salad   144 Calories

26 g of dry couscous (but do check the calorie content)
one tomato
100g of cucumber
100g celery (about 3 small stalks)
75g of salad from a bag


I made up the couscous with the stock I had put aside from lunch.  Basically I heated up the stock and poured it on the couscous and let it rest.  Then came back later and fluffed it up with a fork.  I wasn't quite sure if the stock would be enough and was prepared to add a bit of water but it was fine.   When I looked at the couscous I thought ' that is never going to fill me up!'. 
I chopped up the tomato, celery and cucumber into fairly small bits as I wanted this to take a while to eat.  Then I added this to the couscous and mixed it all up so the couscous stuck to the veg.  I put this in a bowl and then on one side put the salad.

It was delicious!! I think having the stock helped but the veg was all room temperature as I find if you take it straight from the fridge it impairs the flavour.  Mixing it all up made the couscous go much further and it was a lovely texture.



Because I had calories  left from drinking less milky tea, and I had not eaten as many snacks (I had planned to eat the celery as snacks but added it to my dinner instead), it meant I could eat something later so I had another tomato, some cucumber and the rest of the salad bag.

I did obsess a bit about food all day and this was because I didn't really get on with anything else.  So late afternoon I decided to start some crochet and continued this until bed time.  I  hope the crochet will grow as  my girth decreases but I cannot promise I will only do it on fast days.

But here is Fast Day One's crochet

I will not bore you with so much detail next time,, but if I find or make any interesting recipes then I will let you know.

Les Miserables' Costumes and 'I Recognise those buttons!'.

 Les Miserables is one of my favourite musicals and I was so excited when I heard that part of it was being filmed in Portsmouth. Unfortunately I did not fit the type of extra they required - I was not a man.

They required lots of men for the convict scene near the beginning of the film, and this was filmed in the dry dock at the dockyard in Portsmouth.

Because of this connection, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard was given the wonderful opportunity to show some of the costumes from the film, and my sister, daughter and I went along (on one of the coldest days this year).

The entrance to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

 It was good to be able to see the costumes close up, only a few were behind glass.  I do admire the work of costume designers and makers. And on that subject I have to tell you that I was very lucky to be asked to make some of my dorset buttons for a costume.  This was over a year ago, and I was very excited and did scream a bit. However, I put on my professional hat and got on with the job as skilfully, and quickly as I could.  You will see which costume later.

Here are some of the costumes:

I think this is Gavroche's costume.  The waistcoat looks shiny but it was not. It was more of a hand blocked cotton print.

Eponine

 

Cosette

Cosette

As for the buttons I made...they were used on one of Anne Hathaway's  (as Fantine ) dresses. This is the one,  it is lilac. My buttons were used on the back.

Fantine

 I really must apologise for the poorness of the photographs that I took of my buttons. It was a very poorly lit area (no flash allowed) and I was using someone else's camera and I am obviously rubbish at this type of photography.

Here are my buttons.

This is another dress using my buttons on the back.  It is the same dress but distressed a bit more.

It was lovely to see all the costumes and the work that went into them.  The exhibition closes next week so hurry if you want to catch it.

Mini Amigurumi - Book Review

Mini Amigurumi by Sara Scales

I was very happy to be sent this book to review as I do love amigurumi.   I am not a natural crocheter, but have been a knitter since a child and have taught myself crochet in the last few years.   Everytime I return to crochet after a few months break I have to more or less re-learn how to do it.  But I do enjoy crochet and I love amigurumi as I can crochet, crochet, crochet and often there is little sewing up (which I hate!).

This book has patterns for lots of mini creatures and hearts, and toadstools.  I thought I would try one of the simplest things plus I only had one colour of thread to use! 

The smallest crochet hook I had was 2mm, and the book does recommend 1mm and uses 1mm for its patterns. However, there is a really good and useful Techniques section which gives the photos of the sizes if you used different hooks and yarn, so you can use whatever size you want it just will not be as mini.   The mini things can be used in jewellery and do look very sweet as earrings, brooches or on keychains.

The one thing I would ask is that book writers and pattern writers please tell me where to put my hook to  make a stitch, and (forgive me if Sara Scales the author did and I just did not notice) I had to look it up on the internet.

Amigurumi Dog from Mini Amigurumi by Sara Scales

Amigurumi Dog from Mini Amigurumi by Sara Scales

Rear View of Amigurumi Dog from Mini- Amigurumi by Sara Scales

I did have to do some sewing up and it was not horrible at all as all I had to add were ears and a tail to my little dog. But I enjoyed the whole thing so much that I plan to make a little bear next and he has more things to sew on.  I am very happy with the results and the little dog is very sweet.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed using such a small hook and thin thread.  Now armed with more thread I hope to make more. I can recommend this book as the patterns and great fun and the instructions easy to understand.  I think some previous crochet experience will be needed but not much.

Pigs Galore

I thought it was about time I had a photo of my pigs all together.

So here they are:

You can buy my tiny pigs from my etsy shop and my folksy shop.

 And this next one is of the pigs with a new friend.

 And I will tell you more about him in my next post.

Giveaway Winner

The giveaway has ended (you remember this one here).

I asked small girl child to choose a number between 1 and 4, and she chose 2.

So the winner is LUCY W.  Well done, Lucy.  Contact me with your address and you will be sent the pattern.

Perfect for the Cold Weather - and this pattern could be yours!

Brrr..it is jolly cold out there.   So what more could you want to keep out the chills than this super ...thing.

Also called 'scooter style' this ..whatsit will keep you warm as you walk, cycle, run or scooter out and about.

And for you lucky people, I am giving away this pattern. How lucky can you get!

It is a vintage 1960s pattern. You can make 3 different sizes of ..headwear - 3/6 years, 7/10 years and adult.  So your children can wear one too!   It is knitted in double-knit.

To win this pattern (which is the original not a copy) then leave a comment. Any comment will do (except you naughty spammers), but for fun you could tell me what colour/s you would make it in.  Closing date is midnight GMT Sunday 17th March 2013.

Thank you and good luck!

UPDATE MONDAY 18 MARCH - COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.

World Book Day 2013 - A Witch but not just any witch.

Here we are again. World Book Day.

Now we thought Mary might go as Cleopatra, she said she wanted to. And I was designing the outfit in my head.  But then I forgot when World Book Day was.  

One evening I had a text from Mary's friend's mum asking if Mary wanted to go with them to buy things for the Julia Donaldson costume for World Book day.   'What Julia Donaldson costume?' I texted back (or words to that effect).  Well, it turns out that this year the school had decided the whole school had to dress up as a character from a Julian Donaldson book.   

I was a bit annoyed for various reasons.  Looking back now I can see that it might put a halt to the 'Disney Princess dress-up' of previous years.   However, at the time I was angry because I thought it was supposed to be the child's favourite character from their choice of books. I also was angry because Mary stopped reading Julia Donaldson ages ago.  

I was mostly angry because this was two days before World book Day and my child had not been given the letter informing us of the school's decision.

So easy option  -  go as a witch. We had witch stuff.  But, you know me, it cannot be any witch. No, it has to be THE witch from Room on the Broom.  So my shopping, sewing, making instinct that every parent has come dressing up day, came into the fore. GO MUMS!!

Here is the book witch:

Here is our Witch:

Yes, I made the skirt (complete with blue dots all over it); yes I made the brooch; yes I made the hair and stuck it onto the hat; yes I put red dots all over the yellow ribbon; yes I glued gold sequins to the star on the wand. She did have a black cloak but we forgot to take the photo of her wearing it.

I am sorry if I appear a bit proud of myself but frankly I am.  The lovely red cardigan is handmade by my mum. 

There were plenty of witches at the school, but there was only one witch who was THE witch.

Bring on World Book Day 2014, baby. 



(*cries*)